The Approach!
As you can see, I'm very spoilt with April. She's very honest and rarely refuses or runs out. She tends to rush and fight any restriction so I just leave her to it! She rarely touches a pole or gets in a muddle - so I can trust her to do the business.
I generally start off my approach to a jump in trot because canter makes her rush more (she is unbalanced in canter anyway, and there's no way I could ride a course in canter at this stage). She is very versatile in trot and has a tremendous speed range. It is her most preferred preferred gait, and jumping a jump from trot gives her lots of confidence.
She makes all the decisions in the latter stages of the approach - if I make any interference, she will just launch herself at it and jump flat. So I'm merely a passenger as she sorts her legs out as she wishes. For bigger jumps and spreads I let her canter the last couple of strides.
Now that she is getting more and more confident with her jumping (she used to just gallop at everything), I can influence where she takes off more. She is beginning to listen to me (i.e. her ears in the photo) and although I can't use my legs, she will feel me begin to fold and see it as a signal to take off.